queensland Middle Bay Trips Last Two Weekends

[kmcrosby78]

Good news is I've been fishing a bit the last two weeks (first time since school started back I think ....), the bad news is I've been slack with putting reports up, so I'm doing a combined one to cover my Saturday arvo/evening and Sunday morning trips over the last two weekends. Been fishing a new spot which is a drop off from about 4m to 7m and seems to have a fair amount of wire weed. I went solo both Saturday arvo/evenings and unfortunately it was quite windy, and took longer than expected to settle down both times, meaning my plate centre console was banging around on anchor and my baits were dancing all over the place. Been using winter whiting heads/frames, whole bay squid and both live and dead herring that I castnetted at Manly harbour (on Sunday just gone the whole harbour was packed with them and hardyheads, of which I got a few).

The first solo trip only produced one just legal grassy sweetlip before I opted to go home in case the storms came into the bay from the south-east. Then Saturday just gone I got a cod and another just legal grassy. I seem to have not taken a photo of the gold spotted cod, which went about 43cm, and was baked whole (as was the sweetlip) with garlic, teriyaki sauce and kaffir lime, yum!!  I taught my sons Liam and George the delight of eating the meat from the cheek area and also the gooey bits around the eye, so sadly it looks like I'll need to share this with them in future (they were fighting each other over the last eye).

    

The session two Sunday's ago was overall quite quiet given the good weather, but eventually the boys picked up a bream each and I got a nice fat 35cm sweetlip on a whole squid bait right at the end of our session as we were getting ready to pack up (thank goodness ...... ).  We'd decided to put some crab pots in as we'd heard there had been a few around. As always, I took the lazy option and just spread them out in about 3.5m of water to the right of the Manly leads (only 3 pots as I'd forgotten the uprights for my larger pot ...) so that we could head fishing. Sadly on our way back to check them, we discovered the first two had the float and a few metres of rope but no pot. I wondered when I pulled the first one in whether it had been run over (and then wondered how, as I have a  couple of bits of lead crimped onto the rope to stop it floating on the surface and they weren't in a high traffic area) but when the second one was the same (and both ropes were quite cleanly cut ....). My suspicions were confirmed when, to my surprise, the third pot (closest to the leads) was still actually attached to the pot, but when I pulled it up there was no bait in it and no crabs. So we were a bit disappointed about this, particularly the boys. Obviously I'll need to start only setting them near where we are fishing. I would have thought being the middle of the day and so close to the harbour and channel they would be safe, but obviously there are some out there brazen enough to still do the wrong thing. I reckon they mustn't have beaten us to them by much as the two floats not attached to pots were floating around very close to where they'd been deployed. Oh well, life goes on .

To my surprise, this Sunday just gone George wasn't in the mood to come fishing with us so we left him at home (to a surprised mum when she woke up ....... ) so just Liam and I went. As stated, we stocked up on herring (we kept some live), a few hardy heads and one small mullet which we also kept alive. Unfortunately we were plagued by bites (and bite off's) from little 70cm school sharks, but at least Liam got to catch one on his bream rod, which provided him with some fun and some good practice and fighting something a little bigger/stronger than he is used to. I'm glad I decided late last year to put my old Wilson landing net in after a grinner put a whole (which has been repaired) in my Berkley catch and release net. Not long before we packed up, and right as the tide slowed before the low tide change, the live mullet rod took off (am suspecting shark but who knows) and made a few very powerful runs. I gave my Sienna combo to Liam to wind in so it was out of the way but it was either snagged or had a fish on (I think the former) so I attempted to swap rods with him, but as I did so the shark/large fish bust (or bit) me off, so I tried swapping back with him, but didn't make sure he had a good grasp of it, so into the drink it went (second time for this combo, hence the reel made a slight noise). Liam was devastated but I cheered him up, let him know it was my fault, and also informed him that one of the eyelets popped out that day so all in all it was the right combo to lose and on the plus side we now get to replace it .......... .

Thanks for reading, hopefully we can continue to get out and fish as it's good for the mental health and quality family time. I've got a large underfloor fuel tank (about 120L) so the good thing is that with these small bay trips I don't need to fuel up real often, reducing the risk of coronavirus . Stay safe all and thanks for reading. I'll try and take more photos (and landscape ones ...) in future .

 

 

[Old Scaley]

Nice report @kmcrosby78. Good to see you and the boys getting out. Any grinners around? 

Apart from the mongrel thieving b#stards who knocked off your pots, were there many boats out? 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi kmcrosby78

Great report, it must've been very fun going out in the bay. Nice job on the sweetlip, breambos, cod, and shark you got.  Pity your pots were nicked, I hope the people who nicked them got nipped by the crabs LOL.

Cheers Hamish  

[squeak6969]

I hate theiving ba$+@&ds. Nice few trips out apart from that. Nice work

[Cobiaaddict]

Good work @kmcrosby78 

Sounds like your spot has some potential to hold good fish ,  

How is the current in this location ?

Finding wire weed patches in the bay is sometimes very rewarding especially once you work out when the fish move in to feed . ,

Wont be long now and Moreton bay will be in full swing with solid snapper / Cobia and other good fish.  

Cheers 

Josh <><

[kmcrosby78]

2 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Nice report @kmcrosby78. Good to see you and the boys getting out. Any grinners around? 

Apart from the mongrel thieving b#stards who knocked off your pots, were there many boats out? 

Funny you say ask that Steve, as I forgot to add one more photo ..........

Liam managed to catch two (one very small one) grinners on the one hook .......  Bugger all boats out on both Saturday arvos, particularly the one just gone, as it was quite windy. A fair few out on the Sunday's though with better weather.

 

[kmcrosby78]

5 minutes ago, Cobiaaddict said:

Good work @kmcrosby78 

Sounds like your spot has some potential to hold good fish ,  

How is the current in this location ?

Finding wire weed patches in the bay is sometimes very rewarding especially once you work out when the fish move in to feed . ,

Wont be long now and Moreton bay will be in full swing with solid snapper / Cobia and other good fish.  

Cheers 

Josh <><

Cheers Josh, yes I'm hoping it will be a fruitful spot come snapper season. My first session there a couple of months ago I think I lost a decent snapper that zoomed off. I had to pass the rod from one corner rod holder around the back of the baitboard and above the other rods in the baitboard rod holders and think I dipped my rod tip too low at one point in doing so. Grrrr!!!! 

The spot forms a bit of a bay but has a point, so I need to experiment with anchoring positions to see what works best. Think I need to shell out for an electric motor .

[ellicat]

Life is good at Kelvin's place. Looks like you've found a decent spot.

[Old Scaley]

1 hour ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Funny you say ask that Steve, as I forgot to add one more photo ..........

Liam managed to catch two (one very small one) grinners on the one hook .......  Bugger all boats out on both Saturday arvos, particularly the one just gone, as it was quite windy. A fair few out on the Sunday's though with better weather.

 

Two grinners on the one hook! That apple didn’t fall far from the tree, eh Kelvin?

[Old Scaley]

1 hour ago, Cobiaaddict said:

Good work @kmcrosby78 

Sounds like your spot has some potential to hold good fish ,  

How is the current in this location ?

Finding wire weed patches in the bay is sometimes very rewarding especially once you work out when the fish move in to feed . ,

Wont be long now and Moreton bay will be in full swing with solid snapper / Cobia and other good fish.  

Cheers 

Josh <><

Stop it @Cobiaaddict. You made me go all tingly and I am straight as an arrow! Man I hope we are allowed to keep fishing over the winter season.  All those sparkling clear days on the Bay with barely a breath of breeze, snapper everywhere......... now I am making myself tingly. Bring it on.